Quarterly pay figures fall

UK pay awards have slipped back to 3% for the three months to April 2005, according to the monthly research from pay analysts IRS.

This marks a 0.2% fall from the IRS revised headline figure for the previous rolling quarter to March 2005, based on the median range of basic pay awards.

This rolling quarter includes pay awards effective during April 2005 – the busiest period in the pay bargaining calendar.

IRS researchers collected 172 deals with anniversary dates in the three months to April 2005, including 127 basic pay awards.

Other key findings include:

The top and bottom 25% of pay awards were static in the three months to the end of April – unchanged for four rolling quarters. The upper quartile remains at 3.5%, while the lower quartile is locked at 3%

Public and private sector medians are the same at 3%, but the private sector is nudging upwards. Settlements in the 12 months to April 2005 continue to stick at 3% in the public and private sectors

Service and manufacturing sector awards aligned at 3%. For both the manufacturing and service sectors, the median pay award has fallen to 3% in the three months to April 2005, down from 3.1% for manufacturing in the previous rolling quarter (revised downward from 3.2%) and from 3.3% in the service sector

More pay settlements are higher than last year. The proportion of pay deals that are higher than the previous settlement for the same bargaining group has risen from 56% in the previous rolling quarter to 63% in the three months to April 2005. However, 37% of pay deals are worth the same, or less, than the previous year.

IRS Pay and Benefits editor, Sheila Attwood said: “The sample to April 2005 covers well over three million employees, with the inclusion of some major public sector deals below the 3% mark that are exerting a downward influence on the all-economy median of basic settlements.

“As the headline rate of inflation – the key influence on settlement levels – remains firmly stuck at 3.2%, we expect pay deals in the private sector to remain above 3% over the next few months.”